This mid-weight ecru cotton calico is based on Tender’s standard Calico, with a textural check made up of cells of Tender’s Beekeep- er’s Cloth.To do this, a special gear had to be constructed to change the tension on the yarn ends that make up the warp stripes of the check.

A gear (or reed) is a bit like a giant comb which sits above the weft tape in the loom and tensions the warp yarn as it comes into weav- ing.The yarn tension is similarly varied in the weft picks, forming raised cells in a windowpane check which show up particularly dra- matically where they take on the natural turmeric and annatto dyes.